Once upon a time, in a land full of books, two authors, each with a book, met for tea.
“I bet I can sell more books than you do this year,” said Mr. Hare. “Be a secret to selling millions.”
Mrs. Tortuga looked up from her bun and smiled. “And now? Well, we’ll see.”
And so they ran.
Mr. Hare threw away everything he had to sell his one book. He signed up for KDP Select and ran through sales like lightning. “Uh-huh,” he said, “I’ve found the secret to fame. Ms. Tortuga has no chance.”
And so he continued giving away his free book and spamming his Twitter and Facebook friends to BUY BUY BUY.
When he read an article that an author had found fame through book bloggers, he compiled a list and sent a generic email to all of them, asking for reviews.
Some entered, but did not care. He kept spamming and pushing and using all the tricks in the book to get ahead.
When his sales started to drop and his techniques didn’t work, he begged friends and family to leave reviews for him.
“But I haven’t read your book,” said his cousin Murray (why doesn’t everyone have a cousin named Murray?)
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mr. Hare, “just make something up and give it 5 stars.”
He got some of it that way, but when the masses of readers who downloaded his book for free realized that he hadn’t used a publisher, they began to leave bad reviews, complaining about typos and weak prose.
In a desperate act to increase his sales, he lowered the price of his book to 99 cents and kept pushing, spending money left and right to sell his book the way he could.
Meanwhile, Tortoise chose the slow and steady path. Sure, she enjoyed some success with KDP Select, but she knew it wouldn’t last. None of these quick and easy things do. So, she chose to focus on her writing.
He read books on writing and described his next novel. She strengthened her prose and hired the best cover artists and editors to work with her. And she published another novel that year.
Of course, she didn’t give up on marketing, but she stayed focused and consistent. He blogged about interesting topics and tweeted significantly. She contacted book bloggers one by one and read their sites. She created relationships with them and generated some very promising and genuine criticism.
When his second novel came out, sales came from fans of his first novel and new fans who saw that he had more than one book.
She didn’t value her books at 99 cents, but still, people bought them.
While he hadn’t sold as many books as Mr. Hare at the beginning, by the end of the year, Mr. Hare’s sales had stagnated, while the Tortoise was growing steadily.
At the end of the twelve months, they met again for tea and compared their results.
“Well, I sold twice as many books as you did in the first two months,” said Mr. Hare with a swollen chest.
“That’s wonderful, Mr. Hare. I’m happy for you,” said Mrs. Tortoise.
Mr. Hare drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. “Come on, how many did you sell?”
“Okay, my first sales weren’t that high, but I sold my book for $ 3.99 and my second book for $ 5.99, and in the middle or end of the year, I enjoyed consistent sales.”
She showed Mr. Hare her royalty check for the year and her face fell. Although he had sold more books from the beginning, Tortoise had made much more money.
They finished their tea and broke up. Mrs. Tortoise needed to get home while she was editing her third book.
Mr. Hare had not written a new word all year and did not know what to do next.
The moral of the story
Doesn’t this bring you back to childhood? Now, before someone starts a fiery war, I am not criticizing anyone for joining the KDP or for putting a price on their books at 99 cents. I have done both on several occasions, for promotional reasons.
There’s nothing wrong with leveraging tools to drive sales. I enjoyed a lot of success with KDP in the early days and I’m glad I did. I’m also glad I kept writing and kept the price of my books to increase the perceived value unless it was for sale.
The moral of this story is that there is no magic bullet for success in publishing. What worked last year, or last month, for one, or even a handful of authors, is not likely to work for us now.
Our first job is to keep writing to create a stellar catalog of well-written and professionally edited books that will attract new readers.
If you need to earn x amount of money each month on your writing, is it easier to sell a book 2,000 times or five books to a fifth of that amount?
And if you want to make a living, is it easier to do it at 99 cents or $ 3.99 / $ 4.99 / $ 5.99. If you have invested time and money to make your book the best quality possible, you may be charged a reasonable price. People will pay.
But you have to be patient. Success is not instantaneous, even when it seems instantaneous to some. Amanda Hocking had seven to ten books in quick order before she started earning real money. (I don’t remember the exact amount, but she had a lot!)
So if you want to win in this editorial game, keep writing. Yes, do your due diligence in brand marketing yourself, make your book come to light, work to stay in public awareness through social media, blogging etc.
It’s not overnight, but slow and steady really wins the race, and as we build our catalog, build relationships with our fans, and work to create a professional personality on and offline, sales will come.
So remember this the next time you’re about to have a panic attack because your Amazon ranking dropped. You have to keep moving forward, one word at a time. Don’t give up, but don’t get so involved in the game that you lose sight of work.
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